博客文章已经从SpringerOpen blog.
当今的博物馆是历史深处的大量物品的家园，从文化和社会的遗物到很久以来的遗物到违背现代理解的古代利维坦人的遗体。在这些无数物体中，有一个较小的比例，具有出色的文化或科学意义。他们对人类对过去的理解的重要性意味着他们在博物馆的收藏中仍然隔离了，并安全地了解了它们的意义已被充分理解。
巨龙和its cousins went on to kickstart the first dinosaur craze in Victorian England.
右牙巨龙bucklandii在牛津大学自然历史博物馆（OUMNH）就是这样的人工制品，这是标本的部分（标本集合的一部分）。该颚骨代表了第一个科学描述的恐龙，这是第一个被公认为属于当时尚未知道的动物群体的化石标本。威廉姆斯·巴克兰（Williams Buckland）牧师于1824年描述，然后在1842年的《理查德·欧文（Richard Owen）》（Richard Owen）的“恐龙”第一个描述中巨龙和its cousins went on to kickstart the first dinosaur craze in Victorian England. This legacy arguably persists to this day.
反向工程保护历史
尽管如此，对于标本本身而言，鲜为人知的知之甚少。标本的博物馆记录很少。众所周知，它是在1797年购买的，但似乎几乎没有记录有关此期间实际发生的事情，其描述和今天的情况。这尤其令人担忧，因为标本显示了灰泥中恢复的大量证据，如Benson等。（2008）. The process of conservation, the treatment and stabilization of damage and degradation to museum objects mandates knowledge of what has previously been done to an object. An absence of this information makes future conservation efforts challenging and risky.
An absence of information on conservation history makes future conservation efforts challenging and risky.
In order to overcome this conservational concern, we attempted to reverse engineer the conservational history of the specimen, utilizing cutting-edge imaging techniques. Previous research (威尔逊等。2017）使用X射线计算机断层扫描（XCT）探索样品 - 使用X射线根据对象的相对密度重建内部和外部结构 - 揭示了存在用于修复样品的两个单独的盘子。但是，这不足以正确确定玻璃的性质。
为了更好地表征这些灰泥，使用了两种元素映射方法：能量分散性X射线光谱（EDS）和X射线荧光（XRF）。这两种方法都取决于用高能X射线轰击材料的原理，并检测特征性次级X射线的发射，这确定了样品中存在哪些元素。
A conservative conservation approach
Analysis of the two plasters revealed that the more common plaster, P1, was composed of impure gypsum plaster (Plaster of Paris), filled with sand grains, grains of the original specimen, and small particles of the mineral Minium, a reddish lead oxide. The plaster was also coated in shellac. The second plaster, P2, was also a gypsum plaster, lacking these Minium and sand grains but being coated in barium hydroxide instead of shellac, a moisture sealant. The identification of these plasters has helped to better elucidate previous conservational efforts and how to treat the specimen in the future.
This overall represents an extremely conservative approach to conservation by the conservator. The integration of reddish Minium particles represents a conscious effort to colour the plaster to better match the weight and colour of the original specimen and to prioritise verisimilitude of the plaster restoration. The plaster restoration was also extremely conservative of the geometry of the specimen, with small fragments of the original damaged specimen being suspended in plaster.
Dinosaur teeth and evolutionary significant dentary canals
Also revealed from the analysis are a number of new findings. Hidden teeth, in the process of growing and being replaced were elucidated by the XCT analysis, shedding some insight on the tooth replacement of巨龙. Additionally, a complex series of dentary canals within the jawbone were revealed. These structures are poorly explored but recent research has begun to show that they could be of evolutionary significance. Thus, even an old specimen has some new tricks to show.
全面的，巨龙为保护专业人员提供了一个有力的案例研究，并展示了最先进的技术如何逆转工程，这些对象的方格历史知之甚少。它展示了从旧物体中获得新生活的新机会，并证明即使被认为是被理解的物体也可能令人惊讶。
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